MIDDLE EAST: Syria Tries a Shock Treatment

The crackle of gunfire and mortars has long been a normal sound of life
in war-scarred Lebanon, where rival Palestinians, Muslim leftists and
Christian Phalangists warily coexist under the watchful eyes of 30,000
Syrian peacekeeping troops. Last week the tenuous three-year-old truce
in Lebanon was once again broken by sporadic fighting after Syria
announced that it would soon reduce its policeman's role in Beirut. At
the same time, the Damascus government said that it would move some of
its Beirut-based forces into the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon to
buttress Syria's...